Clusters and competitiveness - PRO INNO Europe

Figure 2. The clusters of the future in Catalonia
Clusters with international competitive potential
Designer
manufacturers
FMCG
Industrial systems
Raw
chemicals
Clusters with state-wide competitive potential
Health
Tourism
Source: MONITOR COMPANY (1992): Els avantatges competitius de Catalunya.
Key supporting
clusters
Knowledge Finances
According to the authors of The Competitive Advantages of Catalonia, the “design
manufacturers”, “industrial systems”, “tourism”, “fast moving consumer goods”, and
“health” clusters acted at the time as key driving forces within the economy; the first
three competing internationally to sell their products in an increasingly open market, and
the other two mainly competing to supply the Spanish market from Catalonia. For their
part, the “knowledge” and “finance” clusters played a key supporting role in the economy,
sometimes also as driving forces. Finally, “raw chemicals” was viewed as an inert cluster, as
it had no reinforcing effect on the competitiveness of the others.
The study offered a competitive diagnosis of all these clusters, and also identified priority
areas for the competitive reinforcement of each one.
For the “design manufacturers” cluster, which included all those business areas which
shared the fundamental need to efficiently manage design in one way or another (in the
fields of creation, production and sales), for example jewellery, furniture, leather goods,
leather garments, knitwear, clothing, household textiles or tissue, etc., the study’s basic
recommendation was to promote the introduction of design into the business activity and
encourage the creation and management of own brands in order to compete on the basis
of differentiation.
For the “industrial systems” cluster, which included businesses having the development
of efficient-time management systems as a general skill for success, such as automotive,
motorcycle, domestic appliance, machinery, aeronautics, audio and video equipment,
or office equipment, among others, the study proposed increasing the sophistication of
the demand, improving overall project management skills to achieve a greater internal
coordination of the value system, and working as genuine competitive units.
THE FIRST STEP: THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES OF CATALONIA
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